United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Railroad Comm'n v. Rowan & Nichols Oil Co., 311 U.S. 570 (1941)

Railroad Commission of Texas v. Rowan & Nichols Oil Co.

No. 218

Argued December 12, 13, 1940

Decided January 6, 1941

311 U.S. 570

Syllabus

1. An order of the Texas Railroad Commission limiting the daily allowable production of the East Texas oil field and providing a method for its distribution among the several well owners, held:

(1) Consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment, p. 311 U. S. 572.

(2) Not so clearly a violation of a State statute, Vernon's Texas Annotated Civil Statutes, art. 6049c, § 7, as to warrant an injunction in the federal courts, p. 311 U. S. 577,

as applied to an operating company which challenged the basis of the formula and claimed that, by its minimum and maximum "allowables," it unduly favored wells of small capacity and impaired the future productivity of wells in high-producing and "thinly" drilled areas. Cf. Railroad Commission v. Rowan & Nichols Oil Co., 310 U. S. 573; post, p. 614.

2. In matters of this kind, the due process clause does not require that the judgment of an expert state commission be supplanted by the individual view of judges based on the conflicting testimony, prophecies, and impressions of expert witnesses. P. 311 U. S. 576.

Reversed.

Appeal from a decree of the District Court, of three judges, which enjoined the enforcement of an order regulating production of oil in the East Texas field.

Page 311 U. S. 571